Tripod1404
Active member
Hello guys, as anyone who feed frozen fish food knows, each brand at least list the protein,fat and fiber content of their products. When buying these, many fish owners value the product based on the protein content or based on the sum of protein+fat.
The problem is, it is impossible to make a fair comparison without taking a calculator and normalizing the values for each product. The reason for this is the unequal moisture (water) content.
This is an issue that has been bugging me for quite a while. I have been regularly seeing comments in forums (here and other) based on these analysis values. For instance people are claiming PE is the best mysis option because it is 69.5% protein. Little they know that is actually the dried protein content. In my opinion PE is also superior, but not due to protein content. So I took a calculator and normalized each product by taking moisture content out of the percentage calculation. Results as as follows;
PE Mysis- Labeling is already for dried analysis so nothing to calculate here
Protein-69.5%
Fat-8.35%
Fiber-2.75%
Ash-5.5%
Hikari Mysis-
Protein-78%
Fat-7%
Fiber-15%
San Francisco Bay Mysis
Protein-84%
Fat-6%
Fiber-10%
As these show SFB mysis is actually the most protein rich product. Here I also need to point out that I do not like when brands give the dried analysis of their product when what they sell is not dried. I do not know if PE is intentionally doing this to somehow gain an upper-hand but it sure is misleading. It is like giving the anaysis for a steak at a supermarket where the analysis is made for a beef jerky... I am quite sure this would be illegal to do but it is not for fish food. If I buy flakes, pellets or freeze dried product I can see the logic. It is already dried so the analysis is correct. But it is not correct for a frozen product. I think we need some short of standardization here.
The problem is, it is impossible to make a fair comparison without taking a calculator and normalizing the values for each product. The reason for this is the unequal moisture (water) content.
This is an issue that has been bugging me for quite a while. I have been regularly seeing comments in forums (here and other) based on these analysis values. For instance people are claiming PE is the best mysis option because it is 69.5% protein. Little they know that is actually the dried protein content. In my opinion PE is also superior, but not due to protein content. So I took a calculator and normalized each product by taking moisture content out of the percentage calculation. Results as as follows;
PE Mysis- Labeling is already for dried analysis so nothing to calculate here
Protein-69.5%
Fat-8.35%
Fiber-2.75%
Ash-5.5%
Hikari Mysis-
Protein-78%
Fat-7%
Fiber-15%
San Francisco Bay Mysis
Protein-84%
Fat-6%
Fiber-10%
As these show SFB mysis is actually the most protein rich product. Here I also need to point out that I do not like when brands give the dried analysis of their product when what they sell is not dried. I do not know if PE is intentionally doing this to somehow gain an upper-hand but it sure is misleading. It is like giving the anaysis for a steak at a supermarket where the analysis is made for a beef jerky... I am quite sure this would be illegal to do but it is not for fish food. If I buy flakes, pellets or freeze dried product I can see the logic. It is already dried so the analysis is correct. But it is not correct for a frozen product. I think we need some short of standardization here.
. My LFS is always extolling the virtues of the PE Mysis due to the 'far higher protein levels' that, as you have shown, is poppycock. I prefer PE because it's a better match for larger fish, but Hikari is a key part of my feeding mix as well.
